Political Letter to all the States involved at the Declaration and Program of Action

Ladies and Gentlemen, representatives of the States:

We, African descents, indigenous, youths, women, , Rom people and gypsies, immigrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, gays, lesbians, transvestites, transsexuals, bisexuals, people with disabilities and people living with HIV and AIDS, from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile , Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, United States, Trinidad And Tobago, Saint Lucia, Jamaica, Curacao, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, assembled in the Forum of Civil Society of America America and the Caribbean preparatory process for the review of the World Conference against Racism, Xenophobia and Related forms of Intolerance, held on 6 and March 7 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, we urge them to:

Maintaining the commitment undertaken at the Regional Preparatory Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Brasilia in June 2008;

Defending the Declaration and Program of Action in all of its contents, so that the commitments taken in Geneva, at the Review Conference, to progress in its implementation and to provide answers to contemporary forms of racism;

Commit resources through an agenda with concrete measures and targets in the medium and long term to meet the Program of Action and the Durban Declaration;

Recognize the "race" category as a historical construction and foundation of racism, and to avoid under the pretext of the existence of a “single human race”, it refuses ethnic diversity / race and the existence of racism;

Taking into account that we people of African descent, represent over 150 million people in the Americas and as such must be subject to affirmative action and policies aimed for the elimination of practices of racial exclusion, social and economic inequality;

Include combating racism as part of development policies and within the programs and activities to meet the Millennium Development Goals, targets and indicators;

To take into consideration that in accordance with the Declaration and Program of Action of the World Conference against Racism and Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related forms of Intolerance, to the time of National Census of Population and Housing, the States make it based on specific indicators disaggregated by gender, race and ethnicity through self-identification of individuals, so as to include specific variables on the situation of people of African descent. Encourage them to take appropriate measures to give effect to this request in the next round of the 2010 Census.

Recognizing the interconnection between gender / race / ethnicity and intolerance to sexual orientation and gender identity, racism as an aggravating factor, for urgent action to tackle such situations.

Take measures to ensure that civil society organizations committed to the agenda of Durban, as part of national mechanisms for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Declaration and Program of Action and the commitments emanating from the process Review.

In the belief that we build a common agenda - government and civil society, in order to advance in the implementation of the Durban and convinced that they will take into account our concerns regarding the Conference, we bid farewell to you, sincerely,

International Monitoring Committee to Durban in Latin America and the Caribbean